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Is There Room for Soccer in This Sports-Obsessed Town?

If a country with staggering deficits like ours can still find hundreds of millions of dollars to spend on fantasy sports, we should be just as rabid about soccer as the rest of the world. But we're not. We've never been. Until now? The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday that Americans seem to be finally giving soccer the respect and attention it deserves. Roughly four million Americans watched the U.S. men's national team come close to beating Brazil in the Confederations Cup. A recent Gold Cup final between a second-string U.S. team and Mexico drew nearly 80,000 people to Giants Stadium in New Jersey, the Journal reports, and Major League Soccer's Seattle Sounders regularly average 30,000 fans for home games, more than the Seattle Mariners Major League Baseball team. The Colorado Rapids averaged more than 13,000 in attendance per game in 2008, according to MLS Daily, so perhaps in a sports-obsessed town like Denver, there is room for soccer. Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be room on the Rapids for fan favorite Terry Cooke, whom the Rapids released earlier this week to make room for midfielder Jamie Smith, writes The Denver Post.